The competition will return to France for the first time in 38 years, with the country hosting the last Winter Games in Albertville in 1992. It will be the fourth time the Winter Olympic Games have been held in France.

The sport has been included since the first Winter Games in 1924, but it is the only winter sport that doesn’t include women. Female athletes who compete on the World Cup tour and in world championships have lobbied hard to change that. But their fate is tied to the larger sport.

Reigning World Cup champion Vinzenz Geiger fell not once but twice in the concluding super team event as Nordic combined powerhouses Germany finished without a medal in the sport for the first time in 28 years.

TESERO, Italy (AP) — U.S. team skier Annika Malacinski attended the Nordic combined at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Tuesday to cheer for her younger brother. And protest. Annika came from her training base in Norway to watch brother Niklas finish 13th in his Olympic debut.

Norway's Jens Lurås Oftebro won his third gold of the Milan/Cortina Olympics in the Nordic combined team sprint on Thursday as Germany - thanks to a double fall - ended a Winter Games without a medal in the discipline for the first time since 1998.

For Norwegian Nordic combined skiers Jens and Einar Luraas Oftebro, competing together at the Winter Olympics means almost as much as winning medals.